I’m done talking about Ghost of Tsushima (Sucke Punch Productions) in specifc–well, kind of–but playing it has spuured thoughts about gaming in general. Here is my last post about GoT, which was about the game in general–and my issues with it.
I wish I didn’t have the kind of brain that, upon seeing an open world game, immediately wants to do all the things. I was reading about how long it takes to play GoT, and someone said that they finished the first act in 15 hours. But that was mainlining the main story. I’m over 30 hours and really had to push myself to finish the first act. Otherwise, I would have wandered about for much longer.
Because of my limitations and the way I play games, I always double how long it’s going to take me. Even that is not often enough. I have accepted that I am slower than most gamer–more than doubly so. I knew it was true before I started GoT, and this game just cemented my feelings. Why? Because it’s very generous with its timing in combat, and I’m still fucking it up sometimes. The parry, I mean. Although, I will say that I’m feeling like a badass right now. I’ve unlocked enough perks so that I rarely die except when I try to get across an area I’m not supposed to be in because I can’t see the way around it–
Which, let’s talk about this. I mentioned it in yesterday’s post, and I want to reiterate that I know this is mostly a me-problem. One of the most frustrating things to me is that I cannot see crucial bits no matter how hard I try. I can’t see the tracks that need to be tracked. I can’t even see the enemies when they’ve spotted me from a distance. That’s my perception issue, but also, they just blend into the environment. My eyes are baaaaaaaad.
I want to compare GoT and Elden Ring for a minute beacuse I can. And because they are both open world games, done in very different ways. I think we need to remember that I gave Ghost of Tsushima between a 7.5 and an 8. I’ve given Elden Ring roughly a 9.5. But, they’re on completely different scales for me. I tend to rate FromSoft games automatically above 9.0. So, Sekiro, which is the game I liked the least of their action adventure games is still a 9.0. Here’s the thing, though. I have much more fun playing GoT than I do playing Sekiro. If I was rating purely from that aspect, Sekiro would be a 2 or so.
But I digress.
It’s hard to compare GoT and Elden Ring because while they are both open world games, they play so completely different. With GoT, there is a loop that is very predictable. Gallop across the land on Kage, see an undiscovered location, ride towards it. Get waylaid by Mongols, fight them, see another thing around the bend, and go in that direction instead. Twenty minutes later, finally, reluctantly go back towards the thing I was headed for in the first place. This is why it took me 30 hours to finish the first act.
Elden Ring, on the other hand, is me just wandering around, not going for any specific destination. There are no markers, nor any question marks with ‘undiscovered location’ braying out at me. There are faint icons that once you know that they are, yeah, you’re going to go investigate them. Well, you would, anyway, but once you figure out the stele is for map fragments, the dark dot with orange around it is a mine, etc., you start prioritizing where you want to go first.
GoT is, as I’ve said before, a video game-ass video game. This is not a criticism. Sometimes you want a video game that you can play without putting much thought into it. You want a game that will hit all the right notes, even if it’s slightly formulaic. Or really formulaic. And Sucker Punch does it really well. I want to find all the locations that will give me the things that will give me the buffs/skins/etc. I am less thrilled about the umpteenth fight with rando Mongols, but I can go around those if I wish. However, now that I’m into the second act, the luster is coming off the bloom. There are so many actual missions in the second act, I’m pretty overwhelmed. I’m dealing with it by pretending they don’t exist and going along as I started, but I’m less inclined to explore every nook and cranny.
When I first played Elden Ring, I was rarely bored or thinking, “Oh, it’s another _____.” The one notable exception were the dungeons/caves/catacombs. I quickly got tired of them as I did the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne. Even though they weren’t all the same, the way they were made different annoyed me. They did feel like filler to me, and it was a rare misstep by FromSoft.
Other than that, though, I was heavily absorbed by everything the Lands Between had to offer. There were surprises and delights around every corner. Yes, it’s still a video game, but it’s much more immersive than most. And while the basic story is pretty, well, basic, the way From lays it out is fresh and genuinely surprising.
It’s hard to talk about what From does well on that front because you really have to experience it to believe it. It’s nothing that really lends itself to words that doesn’t sound trite. It’s definitely something you have to be into in order to get anything out of it (reading every item description, piecing together ramdom bits of information you’re given/find along the way, etc.), but if you are and you do, then it’s so emotionally satisfying.
GoT is a game you can just throw on and play mindlessly for several hours (and I have). It’s calibrated perfectly to keep you in that loop. It’s empty calories, but boy, do they taste delicious as you gooble them down. Elden Ring is also a game you can keep playing for several hours on end, but it’s much more deliberate (I’m talking about the first playthrough). It’s conscious about wasting your time, and if they got rid of half the dungeons and half the copy-and-paste bosses, it would be nigh-on-perfect. I didn’t mind the copy-and-paste bosses (much) on my first playthrough, but I also wouldhn’t have missed them if they were gone. And they did feel like filler, which was not needed in a game of this scale. That’s it for today. I will write more tomorrow.